| Birth: | Aug. 2, 1916
Partridge
Reno County
Kansas, USA | | Death: | Oct. 9, 2009
Hutchinson
Reno County
Kansas, USA | 
Dr. Charles T. McCoy, a longtime Hutchinson ophthalmologist and Reno County coroner from 1999 to 2003, died Friday at age 93.
McCoy, for years the only ophthalmologist in Hutchinson and one of only a handful in this part of the state, maintained his practice here for nearly 50 years, finally retiring at age 85 though he continued to serve as coroner until 2003.
"Medicine was his life," his son David McCoy said. "He went to the 50th reunion of his medical school class, and out of 80 in the class he was the only one still practicing. So you could say the state of Kansas got its money's worth."
McCoy was born Aug. 2, 1916, on his parents' farm at Partridge.
In an interview 14 years ago, he said he got his first lessons in anatomy not at the University of Kansas Medical School but on the farm, where his mother cleaned freshly killed chickens and his father butchered hogs.
After graduating from Partridge Rural High School in 1934, McCoy attended Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia for three years and then KU Medical School, where he graduated in 1941.
McCoy was inspired to go into medicine, David McCoy said, by the grandfather he never knew, Walter McCoy, a "horse and buggy" country doctor who was killed in 1905 when he was hit by a train while returning from a house call in the country near Partridge.
McCoy interned at Wichita's Wesley Hospital for a year and then entered the Navy, serving as a medical officer in Fleet Air Wing 11 in the Caribbean during World War II.
After the war, he was superintendent of Sedgwick County Hospital from 1946 to 1947, then went to the University of Pennsylvania medical school to study ophthalmology. After a residency at Kansas City General Hospital, he opened his ophthalmology practice in Hutchinson in 1954.
He became county coroner in 1999, though his tenure was not without friction with the district attorney and some law enforcement officers who disagreed with his decision not to order autopsies in some cases.
Although McCoy left the farm when he went away to college, he never lost his love of farming. David McCoy said his father bought farmland just so he could feel a little like a farmer when he went out to watch tenants work the land. He especially enjoyed going out to watch the wheat come up in the spring and the grain come in during the summer.
McCoy was residing at Wesley Towers at the time of his death. David McCoy said he still drove and enjoyed meeting friends for lunch at Fraese Drug once a week or so to talk over local politics.
"Dad and I talked every Saturday morning at 8 a.m.," said David McCoy, who now lives in Milwaukee, Wis. "It was my way of making sure he was OK and his way of making sure I was doing well. If I didn't call by 8, he'd call by 8:05."
McCoy was twice widowed.
He married Carmen Elizabeth McNeil of Fairfax, Mo., in November 1942, and she died in January 1956.
He married Ruby Alice Brown Evans of Council Grove in June 1958, and she died in 1973.
His survivors include his four sons, Dr. Thomas K. McCoy and his wife, Janet, of Tulsa, Okla., Dr. David Ross McCoy and his wife, Sheila, of Milwaukee, Wis., Kerry Scott McCoy and his wife, Susan, of Clinton, Ill., and Donald Windsor "Chip" McCoy and his wife, Pamela, of Enid, Okla.
He also is survived by 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will take place at 10:30 a.m. Monday at Wesley Towers Chapel, to be followed by a private burial at the Partridge Cemetery. Friends may sign a condolence book from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today and Sunday at Elliott Mortuary.
Family links:
Parents:
William Ross McCoy (1888 - 1964)
Mary E. Friend McCoy (1890 - 1996)
Spouses:
Carmen E. McCoy (1920 - 1956)
Ruby A. McCoy (1930 - 1973)
| | | Burial:
Partridge Cemetery
Partridge
Reno County
Kansas, USA |
Created by: Phillip H. Pitzer
Record added: Oct 10, 2009
Find A Grave Memorial# 42911708 |
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